Biochemical and Histological effects of Aqueous extract of <i>Cyperus Esculentus</i> in Triton Wr-1339 Induced Hyperglycemic Rats.

Abstract

Researchers and physicians look forward to effective therapeutic agents possibly from medicinal plants following the ineffectiveness of modern drugs used in the treatment of fatty liver and its related diseases. To this ends, we evaluated the effect of Cyperus esculentus on the liver in experimentally induced hyperlipidemia in rats. Aqueous extract of the plant was administered orally to rats at the doses of 300,400 and 600mg/kg body weight(b.wt) for a period of twenty nine days. Fatty liver was induced by twice intraperitoneal injection of TritonWR-1339 at a dose of 300mg/kg b.wt. to wistar rats . The result shows that administration of triton led to significant (P˂0.05) serum increase in the activities of alanine and aspartate aminotransferases (ALT and AST) of the rats.There was no significant (p˃0.05) change in the activities of serum alkaline phosphatase following the administration of triton.The study also shows that there were significant( p˂0.05) reduction in the serum level of total protein , albumin and globulin and increase in serum level of total and conjugated bilirubin though not statistically significant (p˃0.05) following the administration of triton to rats.The observed effects are suggestive of mild toxicity of the liver by triton and this is further supported by several histopathological manifestations such as hepatocellular degeneration, macrovesicular vacuolation,periportal necrosis, congestion ,severe intimal ulceration and stenosis in the blood vessels . Treatment with the aqueous extract of Cyperus esculentus attenuated both the biochemical effects and histopathological manifestations.In conclusion, the results from the serum liver enzymes biochemical parameters and histopathological analyses suggested the toxicity of triton and also showed the effectiveness of the aqueous extract of Cyperus esculentus in attenuating the liver toxicity 

Key Words: Cyperus esculentus,Triton,macrovesicular vacuolation,periportal necrosis.